Home, but Left Alone: Time at Home and Child Abuse and Neglect During COVID-19

Lindsey Rose Bullinger; Angela Boy; Megan Feely; Stephen Messner; Kerri Raissian; William Schneider; Shannon Self-Brown

doi:10.1177/0192513X211048474

Home, but Left Alone: Time at Home and Child Abuse and Neglect During COVID-19

Lindsey Rose Bullinger, Angela Boy, Megan Feely, Stephen Messner, Kerri Raissian, William Schneider, Shannon Self-Brown

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We use high-frequency mobile phone movement data and quick-release administrative data from Georgia to examine how time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to child maltreatment referrals. Findings show that referrals plummeted by 58% relative to previous years, driven by fewer referrals from education personnel. After this initial decline, however, each 15 minutes at home was associated with an increase in referrals of material neglect by 3.5% and supervisory neglect by 1%. Our results describe how children have fared during the initial wave of the pandemic, and the results have long-term implications for child development and well-being.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	338-362
Number of pages	25
Journal	Journal of Family Issues
Volume	44
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X211048474
State	Published - Feb 2023

Keywords

COVID-19
I18
J12
J13
child abuse
child neglect
public policy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

Online availability

10.1177/0192513X211048474

Library availability

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title = "Home, but Left Alone: Time at Home and Child Abuse and Neglect During COVID-19",

abstract = "We use high-frequency mobile phone movement data and quick-release administrative data from Georgia to examine how time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to child maltreatment referrals. Findings show that referrals plummeted by 58% relative to previous years, driven by fewer referrals from education personnel. After this initial decline, however, each 15 minutes at home was associated with an increase in referrals of material neglect by 3.5% and supervisory neglect by 1%. Our results describe how children have fared during the initial wave of the pandemic, and the results have long-term implications for child development and well-being.",

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author = "Bullinger, {Lindsey Rose} and Angela Boy and Megan Feely and Stephen Messner and Kerri Raissian and William Schneider and Shannon Self-Brown",

note = "We thank the Georgia Tech EVPR{\textquoteright}s Rapid Response Seed Grant for funding, SafeGraph, Inc. for making their data available for research, Andy Barclay of Fostering Court Improvement and Lon Roberts of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) for their help with the DFCS data, and Stevan Marcus for careful research assistance. All remaining errors are our own.",

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doi = "10.1177/0192513X211048474",

language = "English (US)",

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AU - Feely, Megan

AU - Messner, Stephen

AU - Raissian, Kerri

AU - Schneider, William

AU - Self-Brown, Shannon

N1 - We thank the Georgia Tech EVPR’s Rapid Response Seed Grant for funding, SafeGraph, Inc. for making their data available for research, Andy Barclay of Fostering Court Improvement and Lon Roberts of the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) for their help with the DFCS data, and Stevan Marcus for careful research assistance. All remaining errors are our own.

PY - 2023/2

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N2 - We use high-frequency mobile phone movement data and quick-release administrative data from Georgia to examine how time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to child maltreatment referrals. Findings show that referrals plummeted by 58% relative to previous years, driven by fewer referrals from education personnel. After this initial decline, however, each 15 minutes at home was associated with an increase in referrals of material neglect by 3.5% and supervisory neglect by 1%. Our results describe how children have fared during the initial wave of the pandemic, and the results have long-term implications for child development and well-being.

AB - We use high-frequency mobile phone movement data and quick-release administrative data from Georgia to examine how time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic is related to child maltreatment referrals. Findings show that referrals plummeted by 58% relative to previous years, driven by fewer referrals from education personnel. After this initial decline, however, each 15 minutes at home was associated with an increase in referrals of material neglect by 3.5% and supervisory neglect by 1%. Our results describe how children have fared during the initial wave of the pandemic, and the results have long-term implications for child development and well-being.

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Home, but Left Alone: Time at Home and Child Abuse and Neglect During COVID-19

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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